


Ex-best friends

by InfinityUndone



Series: Breaking the vicious cycle [1]
Category: Little Nightmares (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Humor, Arguing, Crack Treated Seriously, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Humor, Mono is the Thin Man, Six is the Lady, Swearing, Time Loop, supposed to be funny but it turned angsty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-17 22:20:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29599572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InfinityUndone/pseuds/InfinityUndone
Summary: An unexpected guest comes out of a tv on the Maw. He just wants to catch up with his childhood friend.
Relationships: Mono & Six (Little Nightmares), The Thin Man & The Lady (Little Nightmares)
Series: Breaking the vicious cycle [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2178021
Comments: 14
Kudos: 291





	Ex-best friends

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, this was supposed to be just funny, but the argument scene got way too real.  
> This was inspired by Tumblr posts joking about what would happen if the Thin Man met the Lady. Please note, it will only make sense if you're aware of the "Mono becomes the Thin Man" and the "Six becomes the Lady" stable time-loop theories.

Roger hummed to himself as he puttered around in the room, tidying the shelves. His work was slowing down a bit, so it meant he had extra time to do what he wanted, mainly sculpting his figurines. 

He had just settled down with a carving knife and a block of wood, mentally planning what he would do, when a strange sound alerted him. It was… static? From the nearby tv. That was weird, he hadn’t turned it on.

Roger shuffled over and felt around for the knobs, but no matter what he did, the static only grew louder.

“What is wrong with this infernal thing?” Roger muttered. Normally, he didn’t mind listening to the tv, it provided some nice white noise to help him focus. But the static was becoming annoying.

Suddenly, the static increased to a painful decibel. Roger shrank back from the tv, his long arms reaching up to cover his ears. He tried to reach out to unplug the damn thing, but the noise hurt him so much he couldn’t focus.

And then it went quiet. Roger took his hands away from his head, wondering what just happened. The static was still there, but it was much quieter, and it curiously didn’t seem to be coming from the tv anymore, seeming more like it was all around him.

And then, a footstep sounded, and Roger froze. It sounded like a large person was in front of him. How did they get there? They would have had to come… out of the tv.

There was silence for a moment before whoever was standing in front of Roger spoke.  **“Hello.”** Their voice seemed to hiss with static.

“...Can I help you?” Roger asked hesitantly.

**“Am I on the Maw?”**

“Yes.”

**“Oh, good. Is there a woman named Six here?”**

“Six?” Roger racked his brains. “I’m afraid I don’t know anyone by that name.”

**“Hmm. Who leads this place?”**

“Her Ladyship is the leader here.”

**“Can you take me to her? I believe she may be who I’m looking for.”**

“Of course… If you don’t mind me asking, why do you want to speak to her?”

**“She’s an old friend of mine. I merely wish to catch up with her.”**

“Yep, I’ll take you to her quarters. If you’ll follow me, we can take the elevator to the upper levels.”

**“Thank you. What is your name?”**

Roger was surprised, nobody had ever asked his name before. “I’m Roger. I’m the janitor here at the Maw. Who are you?”

**“Call me the Thin Man. Everyone does.”**

“The Thin Man, huh? Did you come out of the tv just now?” 

**“Yes. That is how I travel.”**

“Ah.”

* * *

Some time later, after a very long elevator ride, the doors opened on the kitchens.

The Thin Man stepped out.  **“These are the Lady’s chambers?”** he asked.

“No, we’re in the Maw’s kitchens. We have to switch elevators to get the rest of the way up.” Roger answered.

**“Lead the way, then.”**

As they walked, Roger hoped the Twin Chefs were asleep or elsewhere. He didn’t really like dealing with them, and they would just ask a ton of questions about this new guest.

He had no such luck, because one of the Chef’s phlegmy voices rang out. “Roger, is that you?” He heard loud clomping footsteps approaching and mentally sighed.

The first of the Chefs, usually referred to as “Chef A”, walked around the corner. “What the hell is that annoying noise?” He stopped when he saw who Roger was with. “Roger, who is that?”

Roger sighed. “This is the Thin Man. He has business with her Ladyship, so I’m escorting him to her quarters.”

The second of the Chefs, “Chef B”, walked up just in time to hear the tail end of the conversation. “Business with her Ladyship, huh? How did he get here at all?”

**“I have the ability to travel through tvs.”** The Thin Man said.  **“The only one I was able to find was on the lower levels. Roger was gracious enough to lead me here.”**

“Ohhh, that makes sense.” Chef A said. “Her Ladyship really hates tvs for some reason. Barely lets us have any on the Maw.”

**“Does she, now?”** The Thin Man’s voice sounded rather tight.

“Enough! You’re aggravating our guest.” Roger said in annoyance. “We just need to get to the elevator.”

“Well, you’re in luck.” Chef B said with what might have been a smirk underneath his fleshy mask. “We were just about to bring her Ladyship’s dinner up to her, weren’t we, brother?”

“We sure were. So, why don’t we all ride up together?” Chef A said.

**“That will suffice.”** The Thin Man said before Roger could protest.

And so the four of them were packed into the elevator, along with the dining carts carrying the Lady’s dinner. It was a cramped space. The Thin Man had to bend over to avoid hitting his head on the ceiling, and Roger was squished between the Chefs and spent the whole ride trying not to gag at the smells of rotten food, curdled milk, and sweat emanating from them.

They spilled out of the elevator into the Lady’s quarters after a much too-long ride. Roger gasped for breath. 

“Bad smell in your nostrils, Roger?” Chef B asked sweetly. Roger ignored him. He was pretty sure the only reason the Chefs never bathed was because they wanted to annoy him.

Chef A pushed out the dining carts. “My Lady, your dinner is served!” He called.

A soft, regal voice was heard from the other room. “Bring it in here.”

“That’s her Ladyship.” Roger whispered to the Thin Man. He nodded, but didn’t say anything.

The Twin Chefs wheeled in her dinner. “My Lady, you also have a guest.” Chef B told her. Roger clenched his fists, he’d wanted to be the one to tell her.

“A guest, you say?” The Lady sounded intrigued. “Send them in.”

Roger shoved his way past the Chefs and into the room. He gave a low bow. “My Lady, I present the Thin Man.”

The Thin Man strode into the room. Something had changed, the staticky noises around him sounded louder and angrier.  **“Hello,** **_Six._ ** **”**

The Lady stood up from her elegant chair, and Roger and the Chefs immediately felt fear. The lights around her flickered, the air seemed to drop to zero degrees, and the entire atmosphere of the room turned ominous.

_ “Begone.” _ The Lady ordered her servants. Roger and the Chefs were all too happy to oblige, grabbing the empty dinner carts and getting out of the room as fast as they could. Instead of making the wise decision and leaving, they pressed their ears to the door to listen to the confrontation that was about to happen.

The Lady and the Thin Man glared at each other. The sounds of static and the cold air seemed to be competing for which could feel harsher and more hostile.

The Lady finally spoke. “What are  _ you _ doing here?”

**“Can’t a man just be in the neighborhood and decide to catch up with his childhood friend?”** The Thin Man retorted.

“I live at the bottom of the ocean. There is no way you came here by accident.”

**“Oh, I didn’t. You’d know a thing or two about** **_accidents,_ ** **wouldn’t you?”**

“And what exactly do you mean by that?” The Lady demanded.

**“You let me go.”** The Thin Man’s voice was so quiet Roger and the Chefs had to strain to hear it.

“Let him go? Is he a disgruntled ex-employee of hers?” Chef A whispered.

“No, I’m sure there’s more to it than that…” Chef B whispered back. “Now shush!”

The Lady was talking again. “So what if I did?”

**_“SO YOU ADMIT IT!”_ ** The air burst into static screeches at his yell.  **“** **_You did it on purpose! I always wondered!”_ **

“Yes, I did it on purpose!” The Lady shouted back. Nobody had ever heard her raise her voice before. “You know why!”

**“Enlighten me!”**

“You twisted me into a monster! You captured me and tortured me into that… that mindless beast!”

**“Because** **_you_ ** **dropped me! You abandoned me to a fate worse than death! Do you know how long I sat at the bottom of the Signal Tower?! Staring at the same four goddamn walls?!”**

“You deserved it after what you did to me!”

**“Mono didn’t! I was just a kid! I would’ve done anything for you! If you had just saved me, we wouldn’t be having this conversation!”**

“This is a really heavy conversation to be listening in on, you know.” Roger muttered.

“Then leave if you don’t like it.” Chef A hissed back.

Roger didn’t, he was too invested.

“Well how was I supposed to know about the stable time-loop thing?! There’s a reason they call it a stable time-loop, you know!” The Lady snapped.

**“You could’ve broken it!”** Retorted the Thin Man.

“You don’t know that!”

**“Neither did you!”**

“You turned me into a monster!”

**“If you were willing to turn your back on your friend like that, you already were one!”**

“What the hell was I supposed to do?!  _ You _ got me captured,  _ you _ turned me into that creature, every bad thing that happened to me was because of  _ you _ !”

**“Our lives were nothing** **_but_ ** **bad things! And I tried to rectify my mistakes! I killed my older self to save you! I walked into the Signal Tower just to help you! I saved you countless times while we travelled! And you backstabbed me! It would’ve been kinder if you just snapped my neck!”**

_ “I didn’t need your help! I never did! _ ” The Lady was screaming now.

**“I saved you from the Hunter’s house! I saved you from the Bullies! I helped you in countless ways! I may have caused your capture, but I saved you, didn’t I?! Face it, you** **_always_ ** **needed my help!”**

“ _ You broke my music box! _ ”

**“To turn you back into a person!”**

_ “ _ I only needed saving because you turned me into a monster!”

**“Because you betrayed me!”**

“Because  _ you  _ turned me into a monster!”

**“Because** **_you_ ** **betrayed me!”**

_“Because_ _you turned me into a monster!”_

**“Ungrateful bitch!”**

_ “Unrepentant jackass!” _

**_“Fuck you!”_ **

_ “Fuck you!” _

**_“Fuck you!”_ **

_ “FUCK YOU!” _

**_“FUCK YOU!”_ **

They finally stopped, breathing heavily after their tirades. The static noises faded from the pitch they’d been at, and the air became less heavy and oppressive.

**“Six… I know** **_I_ ** **probably deserved it, but why’d you have to take it out on Mono? I had no idea what my future self would do.”** The Thin Man finally said.

“Do you know what happened from my perspective?” The Lady asked coldly. “From my memory of things, my friend released a monster. The monster took me to its lair. It  _ tortured  _ me, and turned me into a beast. And the monster was the person I’d been travelling with, trusting my  _ life  _ with, and it wanted revenge. It never told me  _ what  _ exactly it wanted revenge for, mind. The music box was my only source of comfort while I was in that twisted form, and then the same friend that would grow up into the monster that did it to me showed up and destroyed it. I don’t know what I wanted to happen when I dropped you. I thought it would just kill you. But if I had known it would turn you into what you became, I probably would’ve done it anyway. Because I  _ hated  _ you at that moment, Mono.”

**“...Did you ever regret what you did?”**

“Did I! I cried for days after I got out of that damned tower. I spent years alternating between angrily thinking you deserved it and hating myself for killing the only friend I had in the world. Before I found out you did become the Thin Man, at least. Then I just felt grim. I realized my actions may have led to even more suffering… but I didn’t care.”

The Thin Man said nothing.

“By the way, you’re not the only one trapped in a stable time loop that involves getting killed by your younger self.”

**“Excuse me?!”**

Behind the door, Roger and the Chefs gasped.

“Yes, I am the same Lady killed by Six. She’s due to show up in about two years, I believe.”

**“You seem remarkably calm about it.”**

“What else can I do? It’s a stable time loop.”

**“You can try to break it.”**

“I don’t even know if that’s possible.”

**“You know, during all those years I was trapped, I came up with a plan of vengeance on Six. My plan was to torture her into a monster to save my younger self from her.”**

The Lady gave him an unpleasant look from behind her porcelain mask.

**“But it’s a really terrible plan. I realized I would only be perpetuating the vicious cycle my life is trapped in. Thankfully I figured it out in time.”**

“Good thing.” The Lady said. “What’s your new plan?”

**“I’m gonna talk to my younger self - and Six. Maybe, I can destroy the Signal Tower with their help.”**

“Maybe. Or maybe you’ll just end up in the same cycle.”

**“I’ll never know if I don’t try.”**

“Hmm.”

**“You could at least warn your employees about Six. That Roger fellow was very helpful, and I recall hearing a story about Six chopping his arms off during her journey through the Maw.”**

They thankfully didn’t acknowledge the hysterical gasp from behind the door. The Twin Chefs gave him a look of horror as Roger wrapped his long arms around himself protectively.

“Maybe I will.” The Lady said. “Or maybe it’s all pointless.”

**“I have to try.”** The Thin Man said firmly.

“And if you do break this cycle, as you put it, what happens to you? If Mono doesn’t fall, you don’t exist.”

**“Honestly, I don’t care what happens to me. My existence has been long and lonely, and I’ve done terrible things. If I break the time loop, I either vanish or don’t. If I do, my existence is finally at an end, and my younger self gets the life I never got. If I don’t, I can try to fix this awful world we live in. Either way, I get what I want.”**

“And what if you save Mono, only for him to die soon after?” The Lady asked.

**“Death is better than what happened to me.”** The Thin Man said bitterly.

They were quiet for a bit, before the Lady said “You’ve given me a lot to think about. All that has happened… we’re a long way from the children we were.”

The Thin Man nodded.

“When you leave the Maw, what will you do?”

**“Wait for Mono to appear.”**

“That’s still quite a ways off. Why don’t you stay for tea?”

**“I suppose.”** The Thin Man sighed.

“...I did miss you, Mono. You were the only person I ever considered my friend.”

**“...I missed you too, Six.”**

The Lady’s mask hid her rueful smile as she and the Thin Man took each other’s hands.

When the moment ended, the Lady snapped her fingers and the door swung open, revealing Roger and the Chefs still standing there.

The Lady’s eyes showed her displeasure at their presence, but she only said “Roger, thank you for escorting our guest here. My chefs, why don’t you bring up something for the Thin Man to eat?”

“Yes, my lady!” The Chefs said quickly, relieved she wasn’t going to punish them. Roger bowed gratefully and followed them to the elevator.

Before the elevator doors closed, they could hear the last snatches of conversation between the Lady and Thin Man.

“We have a lot to catch up on.”

**“Yes, we do. Start with your own story, I’m very curious about how you also ended up in a stable time-loop.”**

“Well, after I left the Signal Tower I…”

The elevator started moving then. It was completely silent for a bit as it’s occupants digested what they’d heard.

“Well, we sure learned a lot about her Ladyship.” Chef B finally said.

“I’m mostly confused.” Chef A said.

“I don’t like what I heard about losing my arms…” Roger wrapped his arms around his body again.

“Hey, now that you know to watch out for it, you might be able to avoid it.” Chef A said. “If you don’t go near sawblades, or gears, or machinery, or axes, or meat grinders, or furnaces, or heavy doors-”

“We live in the Maw! Avoiding all that is nearly impossible!” snapped Roger.

There was silence for a bit longer.

“I think the Thin Man and her Ladyship would make a cute couple.” Chef B proclaimed.

“Really? They screamed curse words at each other.” Chef A said.

“Yeah, but they stopped, didn’t they?” Chef B said. “Roger, what do you think?”

“I support their relationship if it means I don’t lose my arms.” Roger said.

The elevator trundled downward.


End file.
